By code, stainless steel liners that are connected to a wood burning or gas appliance, needs to be extended all the way to the top of the chimney. it should have a top plate and storm collar to prevent water from getting in. the easiest fix is to put insulation around the liner in throat/ damper area.
Insulate the top and smoke chamber. Drill a hole out the side or base of the firebox and install an air intake. If the chimneys in the center of the house you'll have to install the vent to the basement and use the basement air for combustion. Never put a lock top of any kind on the top of a woodstove.
Hanging the liner short of the top is a bad idea. You should have flipped the top plate and cut the liner flush to the top (or left it 1/2 over). Then you should have used the lock top over the lymance damper to fit best. It is always better to use the damper with the additional spark arrestor to stop ambers from flying out of the chimney. Those other flues are 13x13 I believe and top sealing dampers should be installed on those to from maximum energy savings. The mortar crown should be refaced and exterior sealed before those cracks get much worse.
OK. I watched this and read the comments below. What people feel and think about Larry's knowledge quotient are opinions. Facts are good: Opinion, well, ...I am totally against crown washes on chimney crowns which were built incorrectly in the beginning. I think what one comment sharing person meant when they said "cement" ... was concrete. Modern concrete is created by mixing sand, aggregate, water and "Portland cement". I also think reverse corbels, tricky twisting designs and revealing horizontal mortar joints are an anathema to good chimney construction and are the major contributors to accelerated deterioration of the chimney. I question the installation which is without a wrapped SS liner and nothing stopping the flow of air at the damper with kaolin fiber and a metal plate and an appropriately sized hole for the liner. This wasn't actually a typical fireplace "insert" install but is instead a wood stove set into the fplace. I would have treated it the same as a wood burning stove's vent connector into a wall or straight up into a metal chimney. One wouldn't leave an unplanned or unconsidered gap that air could pass through. A top sealing damper on an airtight wood burning stove shouldn't be necessary if the installation had been done correctly.
Larry, I appreciated this video on chimney top dampers. However, I question the process of cutting off the stainless chimney below the top of the masonry chimney for a couple of reasons. Code: I presume that code is written for a reason. In Portland code requires the stainless chimney to continue to the exterior of the house. Air sealing: At my house the stainless chimney cover yoke is siliconed to the masonry. When I blower door test the house. There is little leakage at the stove.
My parents' home actually has a separate little vent, made of very heavy cast brass (to be compatible with fireplace temperatures), in the floor of the fireplace, connecting to a grille on the outside wall. When you open the vent, it sucks the combustion air in from outside. Of course it's not perfect, but you can clearly feel that a good amount of the combustion air does indeed come through the vent. It can be shut when the fireplace is not in use. Has anyone researched these things?
Question - How would you close up the space just above the stove to stop that air from going up the chimney while t is running? I'm asking because as you said my rectangle damper that I keep closed is not very air tight and I would like to somehow make it air tight. The great thing is that I do NOT use the fireplace at all. We just put decorations in it for each season.
You need construct a registration playe and seal it off .This will improve your draw on the flue .This will also stop any heat /ait leakage from the house from travelling up the chimney stack .. ;)
We have a fireplace that we don't use so we wanted to cover it up. We live in San Diego so we have wood exterior walls. But we don't want to completely eliminate the fireplace and chimney just in case, if we ever sell the house, we could reconstruct the mantle. Would it be a good idea to use something like this and then could we just demo the mantle and frame-in the opening?
Well if you’re in the season where there’s a nice storm or heavy snowstorm you should be using the fireplace in that will create heat to keep the top or the lid of the chimney from freezing up or ice buildup from the heat going up
Made the problem different, but still a problem. If the liner had been installed correctly with a metal blanking plate at the damper there wouldn't have been an issue. Mineral insulation packed around liner at the base of flue and high temp calking around blanking plate would have eliminated heat loss and made it fire safe. When your new fangled damper is open heat still escapes around liner and there is still a potential fire hazard without the damper blanking plate. Was it inspected???
For someone that relies on such installations as a primary heat source that is rarely cooled down, more emphasis should be placed on sealing between the liner, damper, and the original flue. About the only time that chimney cap would be closed would be during the warm season months when the air exchange is not an issue. A good video otherwise :)
that top plate that you removed is needed to help support the SS liner.. That flexible SS liner will collapse as soon as someone tries to run a proper size brush through it. Several other things you talk about make me think that you do not really know what you are talking about. remind me to never call you when my house needs doctoring.
A proper flexible or ridged liner would have completely eliminated all air loss. Once you seal the chimney cap you have no more opening unless you open the stove door.
looking to get rid of my wood burning fire place. and add an electric fireplace. can i cut off my Chiney Pipe in the atic and Cap it there? i was hopeing to wait until i need to replace my roof to remove the top pipe! can i do that? or use it as just an ATTIC VENT until then?
I have the exact same damper installed on my house and it is absolutely worthless. I have a ton of air leaking through it and am actively looking for a better solution, which is what brought me to this video. Avoid this product at all costs!
Agree completely. I also had this damper installed and I still get a big draft through the fireplace. Manufacturer said I must have a pressure problem in my house.
why silicone/caulk the cracks?? Just restore the cement crown wash with either a proper cement crown or a proper Crown Sealing Medium by Saver Systems??
HI Larry, quick question, Assuming the stove door is closed when not in use, what extra energy saving does the cap do? The air from the room won't flow through the chimney as it is stopped at the stove door. My new fireplace takes air from a pipe leading to outside for combustion, so no air will be coming from the house unless there is an air leak in the stove door.
This liner should NOT have have been cut back. Bad advice plus you didn't solve the problem of heat loss while the stove is running. Glad this "Doctor" isn't working on my house!
What do you or anyone else recommend blocking the space around the SS liner and chimney wall at the bottom of the chimney. I want to block that air space with something non combustible
Good point, Mario. You can use strips of "ceramic blanket" or wired pads of rock wool or non-combustible fiberglass insulation to bridge the gap between the masonry and the (insulated) metal flex liner, then block up the entire opening with a flexible metal plate having a hole cut for the pipe and outside dimensions to fit the top of the fire box. This is the sort of thing an actual professional installer would do automatically.
You spent a lot of time explaining how BAD the efficiency is going to be when the wood stove is in use but gave nothing for how to fix it. Sure controlling the air loss is important when stove is NOT in use, but give me something.
Proper sealing around the damper by a custom made plate...then loose fill after liner install from the top with a few bags of Vermiculite.........and an install of a primary top plate cut snug around the liner.. sitting into internal of flue prior to the flashing cover being fitted would give a snug home...so none of those convection currents...that he was on about...
And lastly WHY oh WHY did you cut the stainless steel chimney liner below the top of the flue tile...That is against the manufacturers specific instructions and a hazard for the installation...I am so glad yo are not working on my home!!! YIKES
Yikes indeed. As a violation of the installation instructions, it violates the product safety listing and therefore fire code. Next time you hire a professional for the required annual inspection and cleaning, he or she may simply walk away, or report it to the fire inspector.
Look at 5:15. There are TWO other wide-open flues. Because he disconnected and cut off the spiral ss liner and its top plate, and the hole is still open where the pipe goes through the fireplace damper, he has probably INCREASED the loss of room air, with the wide open connection between the room and the open top. If the SS liner had been insulated and the top and bottom sealed to close off the existing flue, it would have been a much better job for the customer.
This is a terrible solution and has a lot of misinformation. What supports the liner once it's cut? How does it get cleaned afterward? A far better and more common solution is to seal the liner at the damper area with an insulated block-off plate and then to pack the top of the chimney with kaowool insulation, then cover with a proper top-plate that has a good drip edge. The top plate is sealed at the rim with silicone, just like has been used in this video for the top sealing damper.
You really should take this video down. It’s wrong on many levels. As a 26 year chimney sweep and went through Dr. Energy training. This violates a multitude of listings and minimum code requirements. “Millions of stoves were installed without problems “ haha! False!!
